The case surrounding Google and java owner Oracle continues to develop new and interesting information. Just yesterday, Google wrapped up their side of the case on the stand, allowing Oracle to take over and proceed with things on their end. One of the first things that has come up since yesterday’s proceedings is a new monetary figure that Oracle states Google has made from Android, as the company’s economic expert has said the generated revenue is upwards of $42 billion. As a little bit of a follow-up, back in the beginning of the year, Oracle claimed that Google had made upwards of $31 billion from Android. This figure is for the amount of money that Google has supposedly made, according to Oracle’s calculations, from the time between 2008 and 2015.
Although it is public knowledge that Google does not share the revenue numbers from the Android operating system, the rising number given by Oracle is a glaring testament to the fact that Oracle has come up with its own method for hitting that number. The continually rising sum becomes ever-more intriguing when you consider that Oracle admitted that the amount of Java code used within Android for the APIs was around 1 percent and that Google had used those APIs in Android prior to Oracle buying out Sun Microsystems which previously owned Java.
It isn’t all about the principle of copyright infringement, though, naturally, as Oracle is seeking damages and lost revenue. Since Google had started using APIs to build Android and companies like Samsung adopted the platform, Oracle claims a massive drop in revenue that Java once generated for the company, stating that revenues from Samsung in regards to Java used to be around $40 million, but had eventually dropped to $1 million once Samsung started using the Android platform on its devices. Google argued yesterday that its use of the APIs should fall under fair use, although there is no way to know at this point if the court will rule in their favor on the matter. Oracle is seeking around $8.8 billion in total damages which is about $1 billion more than they paid to purchase Sun Microsystems. The case between Oracle and Google which has already spanned years is still ongoing, although they are in the final phase of the case at this point, so it shouldn’t be expected to continue very much longer.